Just recently, the leaders of the United Methodist Church in San Francisco voted to ordain their first female gay bishop. The Episcopalian Church has ordained not just gay pastors and bishops, but bisexuals as well. Many large denominations are now following suit. What in the world is happening?
Well, for starters, there’s a gradual erosion of truth in society and this is very diabolical. Ancient landmarks that God had set up to protect society are now being removed. And it’s happening not just in the world. It’s also in the Church. And of course, if one dares to speak up against it, they call that hate speech. Whether we like it or not, truth is now the new hate speech. People don’t want to hear the truth any longer and each day, it’s slowly being eroded.
Every year, Merriam Webster Dictionary would select a word as its word of the year. In 2014, the word was “culture”. It was the most googled, most trending and most talked about word. In second place was the word “nostalgia”. “Science” was voted as the word of the year in 2013 because of intense debates around the world concerning climate change. In 2012, the most popular word was “socialism” because of the American presidential elections. But in 2006, they chose an interesting word.
The committee had a hard time because there were some big words on the submitted list, words like “Google”, “terrorism” and “insurgency”. But a new word was chosen and came into our lexicon that sort of characterizes our human preference to bend the truth to accommodate our desires. The word that Merriam Webster selected as its word of the year was the word “truthiness”. It was a late-night talk show host, Stephen Colbert who coined the word as a way to describe how politicians often bend the truth to support their actions. “Truthiness”, n. is the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. The President of Merriam Webster, John Moore commented, “We’re at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people’s minds and truth has become up for grabs. ‘Truthiness’ is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue.”
So is truth an important issue? You’ve no idea how important it is. It’s one of the four cornerstones that uphold the Throne of God in heaven. Psalm 138:2 is probably one of the most staggering statements in the entire Bible and the psalmist says, “The Lord magnified His Word above all His Name.” This is so intensely profound. What’s His Word? Jesus said in John 17, “Your Word is truth.” In other words, if you were to put His Word and His Name on a scale, His Word would weigh heavier than His Name. That’s how important truth is to God.
You know there was a time when if you were in a courtroom, and you placed your hand on the Bible and said, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God”, you meant it because not doing so would mean you were guilty of perjury. In the Old Testament, disputes were often settled by an oath. Whatever happened to “a man’s word is his bond?” 2,000 years before this word was coined, Pontius Pilate asked Jesus perhaps the ultimate question. He asked Jesus, “What is Truth?” 2,000 years later, people are still asking the same question. To this, Jesus answers and says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” He is, and always will be Truth Personified.
